


Labyrinth

by AireHaleinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adventure, Alpha Derek, Alpha Scott, Alpha twins - Freeform, Angst, Bisexual Stiles Stilinski, Character Death, Cheating, Depressed Stiles, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Feels, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Horror, Humor, M/M, Members of the pack are friends, Pack Dynamics, Pack Feels, Post season 3a, Road Trips, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John, Slow Burn, Versatile Sterek, Wet Dream, drunk!Stiles, mexican mythology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-05 04:55:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11006436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AireHaleinski/pseuds/AireHaleinski
Summary: There's a hole in Stiles' heart, while he travels to Mexico for the Lacrosse Championship: the Pandora's box of supernatural creature is open, new threats are coming and the most difficult battle, the one against death, it's about to begin.Between growing up and facing teenage problems, Stiles, Derek and the rest of the pack realize that their life will never be the same.





	1. Dark Animals and Bright Lovers

**Author's Note:**

> READ THE NOTES
> 
> Hey everybody! Welcome to the first chapter of this monstrosity of a fic! It took me ten months to finish it, and it's the longest fanfiction I've ever wrote.  
> It takes place one year after 3a, but with a few references on some actual parts of 3b, because I planned the fic before 3B aired, but I wrote it during that season.  
> It follows canon until 3x12, but it starts with a non canon situation, that in my timeline happened in an hypothetical 3B. It's often mentioned, expecially during the first chapters: Deucalion wants Kira, because having a Kitsune in his pack is something rare and gives prestige. Scott doesn't want to, so Deucalion wants to kill her. The result is an epic fight against the Demon Wolf - that in the fic is just mentioned - that gives back to Derek and the Twins their Alpha power, by killing the man.  
> A year after, Stiles is the only one who still deals with the darkness around his heart, because Lydia's powers as an anchor (that we saw in canon in 3x11) failed dramatically - see, in canon he was actually possessed by the Nogitsune.  
> The story starts here. Hope you're gonna enjoy! The fic is finished, but I have to translate it =P  
> Stay Tuned! =)  
> Ps it's Sterek, but with LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG slowbuilt. Like LOOOOOOONG.  
> If there are any mistakes, please let me know.  
> Enjoy! =)

The cupcake - shaped clock, hanging at the entrance of the bakery "Sweet dreams" just strikes ten p.m. but the clients don't give the impression to care: despite the unusual late hour infact, selling doesn't seem to stop. That area of the city is the most popular with young people, and that gives an additional hand in supporting the business.

Fragrances from various shops clash hard, trying to prevail upon each other: delicate, as the slight scent of violet joined candidly by strawberry and vanilla, so that the palate can savor a spring flavored ice cream; suffocating, as the stench of fried and onions which clings strongly to clean clothes, coming from the pubs just around the corner.  
The street lamps, scattered in disorder on the road, light up the evening with pleasure; from rigorous and patient like a simple appetizer, the atmosphere becomes unbridled and passionate, like alcohol shots.  
It's time for the innocent night to become scathing.

Beacon Hills has never been so full of enthusiasm: the streets are alive, among the horns of the taxis, the scratches of the dishes in the restaurants, the neon lights of many colors and the screams of a few teenagers who have great fun in a limousine.

Luminous dots cover the sky, invisible in contrast to the intensity of the city lights, and that's when the dark shadows - about to cross the street - of three boys stand out against the gray asphalt, stretching more and more and reminding to those of giants.  
If only Stiles Stilinski, Ethan Carver and Danny Mahealani have been in the woods nearby, they would notice how the silent stars are shining, trying to show off.  
The skinniest of the three, Stiles, looks tired while staring at the simple harmless sickle that is the moon, wonderful and sweet, like the sprinkle of cream on a strawberry salad that is served to a nice little family, on the pastry shop next door.  
The moon has always been considered the element of love par excellence, a refuge for those who can't manage to rest properly and a lighthouse for the helpless, when the sun drops off.

What a fucking nonsense.

Stiles knows the moon is dangerous, owning that dark side that is never showed to the inhabitants of the Earth, perhaps not to scare them, to reassure them instead, to guide them more easily in the arms of Morpheus.  
Yet Stiles crashed violently against that gray area albeit his will, since the year before, letting his life to change forever.  
The same darkness that slowly materialized in his being, and couldn't allow him to breathe in those twenty hours a day he used to pass conscious.  
The influence of the full moon is able to turn people, to hurt them tragically or worse, involve them in situations that alter drastically their lives.

Stiles' hands are clenched into fists in his pockets, while walking slowly to the edge of the sidewalk, wondering what the hell is he doing in that area of the city, near the "Jungle", Beacon Hills' most famous gay bar.  
He's not dressed with glitters, unlike the unknowns that are popping up on the street: Stiles wears a simple plaid shirt and strangely clean and undamaged jeans, but the boy, with amber eyes and perpetually upward dark hair, like antennas used to capture threats, makes a dozen male passers - by to turn.  
What an honor. Stiles doesn't want to attract attention, he doesn't care anymore.  
The boy sighs, following his friends automatically, without thinking about where he's going.

Danny promised him that just few people would have gone onto the streets, because the event taking place in the sports hall would definitely monopolized the attention.  
That evening, however, thanks to the friendly atmosphere as it's already spring, the whole city gathers there, following and harassing Stiles, who can't stand the noise caused by screams, rumbles of engines, laughter.

There is nothing to laugh about.

The boy was taken from his home as a mail package, and led through that chaos he hated.  
"No objection, you come with us tonight" Ethan proclaimed just half an hour before, with a threatening tone, ringing Stilinski's doorbell and entering in the house without giving Stiles the time to think of what was happening.  
Along with Danny, then they dressed him, and combed his hair like a rag doll.

Now Danny Mahealani with his warm and sociable gaze that gives transparency to his Hawaiian origins, and his boyfriend Ethan, dark and mysterious eyes, cooler and much more aggressive than Danny, are exactly next to Stiles on the sidewalk, holding hands with enthusiasm.  
They keep muttering about basketball and Lacrosse strategies, the sport that made them heroes at school.  
Lacrosse used to be Stiles passion too, during his first high school years.  
Danny and Ethan are good, and aware of it. That's why they whisper compliments Stiles can't hear and exchang tender kisses, Stiles is trying to ignore.

Both of them wear bluish jeans and a black t-shirt, perfectly matched to the dark colored shoes.  
How romantic, they are dressed alike: Stiles huffs, feeling a slight cramp in his belly, realizing that he can be sick at any moment, for all the useless sweetness coming from these lovebirds.

Maybe he is just envious.

Stiles hasn't spoken all evening, a non - event now, given that the "bigmouth Stilinski" who was known by half of Beacon Hills disappeared since the year before, giving way to a pale curmudgeon.  
Luckily they reach the nightclub, approaching the queue in front of the 'Jungle', with someone already with their ID card on hand for easier operation.  
Many, too many people, decided to celebrate the end of the "spring break" by getting drunk, without thinking about the next day.

"What a crowd! I guess we'll have to wait more than a quarter of an hour" Danny snorts.

"I thought the event at the hall would attract the interest of the entire city like flies on the shi- '

"Woah, please don't give me other mental pictures I don't need" Stiles squints with disgust, speaking for the first time that evening to stop Ethan, who was showing quite explicitly his idea.

Ethan smiles, noticing Danny's amused gaze and while staring at the queue, the boy surrenders himself to a thought.

"Oh, I have a way to make us go forward" he suggests, pulling out the claws.

Stiles watches him, alarmed and concerned, moving ahead of him to prevent passers-by to see the unusual and disturbing form of his nails, while Danny studies amazed his boyfriend's fingers, still surprised by what he's seeing.  
Learning his boyfriend's werewolf status still shocks Danny, knowing that Ethan is a Alpha, along with his twin Aiden; that he killed a lot of people and also members of his old pack just for pleasure, and that he isn't the only one in the never boring Beacon Hills.  
Stiles knows it too well, but doesn't want to think about it. If the heart weighs, his head, at least that night, has to be empty.

The memory of the sacrifice is still too strong in his mind without any intention to wane. Stiles saved his father from certain death, but the price to pay now was destroying him slowly.

Danny jolts with fear, lowering his boyfriend's arms. "Ethan, put away the claws! What if someone sees you?"  
"I'll threat them to get the hell out of here. I don't want you to wait, you need to have fun tonight" he whispers, satisfying Danny and giving that special look he reserves for him.

Just after a moment the two boys lean against the wall of the bar, with lips connected, hugging with strength.  
The squeaks of the people around them grow louder as someone chirped: "How cute!".

Stiles beside them looks down, annoyed, feeling decidedly out of place.  
He doesn't understand why he agreed to go out with those two: maybe he doesn't want to feel alone, as the only prospect of the evening was to stay at home and play video games.  
He hadn't too many alternatives, since his other friends ditched him, and he has been forced to go out.  
Lydia for example, its historic flame in all senses, because of her strawberry blonde hair, was spending the evening with Ethan's twin, Aiden, and her best friend Allison with her boyfriend Isaac.  
They arranged a double date, and from what he got while listening to some of their conversation, the quartet went to the bowling room.  
What about Scott, his best friend and almost-brother, who was dealing with a nice banquet with Melissa, his mother and Kira, his new girlfriend, also a registered member of the "Beacon Hills's madness festival", since she was a Kitsune, the fox of a Japanese myth. 

No one can associate the word normal, with their pack: the mass of fools included, in addition to the fox, even six werewolves, a Banshee (the flaming Lydia), and a werewolf hunter (Allison) who became a sort of "bodyguard" of those who can't protect themselves.  
Not to mention that a few years before a lizard killer, with the appearance of a prince and Lydia's greatest love Jackson, attended the same school and walked the same road they walk across every day. The lizard, becoming wolf due to too much confusion that Stiles wanted to remove from his brain, moved to London, thank goodness, since the year before.  
All members of the "pack" were having a great time, pretending to be normal guys for just a night.  
The people in the queue laugh: how can't they be happy in a so enjoyable evening?  
Just ask Stiles, who suffocates at the sight of the row behind them growing longer. 

"Tonight's on me, drink what you like" 

Ethan shows some unusual kindess, finally separating himself from Danny, waiting patiently against the wall. 

"Whatever" Stiles mutters.

Ethan and his brother caused too many problems to the pack, so the werewolves decided to make up for it in every possible way, trying to be kinder.  
It wasn't just the twins' fault for the situation all of them found themselves, since the psychopathic druid Jennifer Blake, who the year before pretended to be a smart and sweet English teacher had done her part ...

Here, it's happening again. Stiles against the past, act one hundred and fifty, and another defeat for poor Stilinski.

No, that night he has to forget what happened, trying to remember how funny it is to live carefree.  
No negative thoughts like his love for Lydia never returned and now died down, his prending feelings for Cora Hale, just a mask for his real obsession.  
Since when he became so masochistic? Thinking about the Hales did nothing but widen the overwhelming pain. It was an off limits subject. 

Damn the day Scott has been bitten by Peter Hale. If only that night instead of strolling through the forest in search of mutilated corpses, he and Stiles just stayed home to watch some good TV series...

The three boys continue to wait patiently, watching the people around them growing more and more in number: it was amazing how many gay people there are in Beacon Hills. All have gathered that night for a bit of fun, with Danny and Ethan, though less cheerful, eager to revel.  
Two boys dressing as nurses, seem to come back from a costume party, with fishnet stocking that cover their hairy legs and makeup that softens slightly the decisive features of their faces.

Stiles turns around, grinning slightly and noticing how the make up isn't so bad on them after all. Lydia would have been proud.  
There are men full of glitter and feathers all over their long dress, and curly purple wigs on their heads while the two young men behind Stiles, with a much more sober appearence, just holds hands.  
Stiles looks at them as he looks for his ID: one of them is much smaller and has perpetually disheveled blonde hair, a mole under his lip and a tattoo on his neck, forming the letters SH. Maybe they are his initials, or perhaps the initials of his name and the one of his boyfriend. The other isn't muscular at all, wearing black leather jacket, his hair is black and rather short, but he has special eyes, green as a meadow, that Stiles finds himself staring for a while.  
The same green eyes as...

"Stiles it's our turn!" Danny shakes his fingers, bringing Stiles back to that reality that somehow frustrates him. 

The bodyguard, a big threatening man, give the kids a couple of dirty looks, which mean "pass", and the trio manages to enter.

Stiles has already been there some time before, with Scott. Not to see each other or anything, but to hunt down the killer - lizard Jackson, who was strolling through the city in search of human flesh.  
Nothing has changed in a year: the short staircase perpetually moisted at the entrance; the walls always cover with bars of leds, of all colors; the floor and the seats at the corners, all coloured with a wooden brown, make the place look like a forest, revealing the true reason for the name "Jungle".

The middle of the large room is dominated by the liquors shelf, made in solid wood: that's where Stiles, Danny and Ethan approach the bartender, ordering drinks: three simple cokes can be enough, they don't need to get high, because that would mean sobering up the next day between Econ and History. 

The wood of the bar is darker that the sky outside, and Stiles sits with a depressed puff, giving in to the negative feelings now taking place inside him.  
The bartender, with dark hair, brown and lively eyes and rather puffy lips, puts vigorously the soft drink on the counter, turning to the boy: "That's not a pillow my friend, get up and dance! Who has ever seen a guy that throws himself like a dead weight on the counter of a bar?".

Stiles pretends not to listen.

"It's impossible to understand the youth of today" the bartender mutters sarcastically, who is probably just twenty-six, moving away to serve other customers and gazing at Stiles with compassion, without him to catch it.

"Stiles?" 

Danny looks seriously worried next to him, chewing on the straw of his Coke.  
Why does Stiles always have to play the part of the curmudgeon, at a party?  
He is the life of the party, or rather, has been.

"Stiles, we did it for you, but if you don't feel comfortable, we can get back home" Ethan suggestes, as he pays for the drinks. 

The scorching heat of the room, the loud music and the smell of alcohol begin to intoxicate and daze Stiles, but the boy after thinking about it for a moment, refuses.  
Stiles takes a deep breath, deciding that maybe he can start to dance a little in some corner of the room, just to try to get back the old fidgeting boy that everyone loves.

"No, don't worry Ethan. I'm fine, just a little tired. I want to stay here even if I give the impression of wanting to disappear at any moment. I'll try to enjoy myself at least now, if I can. "

"That's right, that's the spirit! - Danny smiles, giving Stiles a vigorous pat on the back that almost makes him crash into the bar - Hey, look who's here!" Continues the man, pointing to a boy who appeares beside them from nowhere.

"He is Jeremy, he attends with me the music course, and is part of the Lacrosse team. I wonder why I'm presenting him to you as you should remember him. Well... - Danny goes on after observing the astonished looks of both Stiles and Jeremy, a sign that the two have never seen each other before - why don't you know each other better? Stiles is here to make friends, right?"

Danny tries to take the part of a sort of Cupid, and Stiles hasn't the heart to stop him: after all Danny is just helping him to spend an evening with someone, he has to thank his friend, even though Stiles doesn't feel to know anyone.  
Stiles is strange, one minute he wanted to have fun, the next to sink on the counter, contemplating his infinite sadness.

"Okay, Jeremy, I'm Stiles" he merely mumbles, shaking his hand and holding back the tide of jokes that the sprinkling of freckles on Jeremy's face surprisingly surface on his brain.

Jeremy is nice, after all. Athletic, around ten centimetres higher than Stiles, with a masculine face but with no beard, dark hair and eyes as green as meadow, illuminated by the lights of a thousand different colors.

He also has the irises of that particular shade that sent Stiles into raptures.  
Something snaps in Stiles' brain: is there a reason why all that he attracted around him are muscled, with dark hair and green eyes, guys? Apparently yes, but he does his best again to hide from the eyes of the world his major weakness.

The music, suddenly becomes very heavy, with the bass almost trying to break through the chest, and drinking an ice coke is a momentary panacea for the unbearable heat and the annoying headaches that emerges. The tingling of the bubbles gives Stiles goosebumps.

Danny and Ethan turn away slightly, struggling with a sensual dance around a pole, lacing fingers, tongue against tongue, close fitting shirts and sculpted muscles darn well in sight.

Here is the effect that the incessant Lacrosse training gave them, plus Danny is co - captain, along with Scott, since a year before, Jackson, the former captain, left town.

Stiles decides it's better to sit somewhere comfortable, so he sprawles himself on a white sofa beside him, so soft he can sink, not without noticing that Jeremy is following every move.  
The newcomer is a darn quiet type, almost competing with Stiles with the "quietness", but he throws glances toward Stiles that are pure lust.

Stiles realizes it, he's not stupid. He wonders how to get out from that situation, which becomes more and more embarrassing, though slightly hilarious.

He doesn't want Ethan or Danny to notice that he isn't so indifferent to the guys around there.  
Jeremy is getting closer and closer, and Stiles begins to feel strangely agitated.

Perfect, now he is at the verge of an anxiety attack in a bunker like that, where alcohol, sweat and blinding lights owns the place. His heart starts to beat faster in his chest and the air is getting thinner and hot.  
It's obvious that Jeremy is hitting on him, and Stiles is very confused; more than usual, at least, above all because he can't stop looking at Jeremy in the eyes.

Stiles knows he's getting 'the best of both worlds', proud of swinging both ways: he's attracted to women, but he's sure that some guy tries to make a move on him, and more than once he felt attracted to guys crossing the street, or simply to the new deputy Jordan Parrish, which coincidentally had green eyes.  
Even Danny, before falling in love with Ethan, also proposed to Stiles of wanting to take his virginity and the boy, knowing that the year before in Beacon Hills being virgins was synonymous with being dead, was about to accept.

As he thinks about his situation while continuing to observe Jeremy's eyes, Stiles realizes he can't hide anymore to himself the inexplicable attraction he feels for the young man who always protects Scott, not him, as a brother.  
Who Stiles more than once saved from an almost certain death.  
The man who never made a right decision in his life, between sleeping with the one who had burned alive his family and falling in love with a psycho druid.

Here we are: into the Hale area again. His mind can't help it.  
Stiles decides it's better to break the silence and the relentless work of his brain, so he turns to Jeremy with a reluctant expression, and says loudly over the music, "Hey Jeremy, listen how about danc-"

The proposal of a dance is silenced by Jeremy's lips, pressing violently and unexpectingly against Stiles' ones.

Here's another kiss to add on Stiles' list 'Someone is kissing me without making any sense and I'm shocked'. Heather was the first, during her 17th birthday that ended in tragedy, and then Lydia, while he was shaking because of a panic attack, in the locker room of the school.

Jeremy's one is not so different.  
Stiles feels those lips forcing his mouth, eager to explore it with interest: Jeremy tastes like a mix of sweat, saliva and ginger ale, with a slight hint of peppermint coming from the guy's aftershave.  
Stiles didn't had the time, nor he wanted, to use some profume, but Jeremy doesn't care apparently with his hand resting on Stiles's face as if to calm him down, because his heart is reaching dangerous levels, as well as his eyes, wide open to observe what is happening.

"I like you Stiles ..." Jeremy gasps, breaking away from Stiles' lips only for a moment, to watch the shock caused by the gesture.  
Stiles recognizes, as he felt his face burning, that it's the first kiss he receives from a boy, and it's quite alright, after all.  
He thinks about it for a moment, while the heartbeat is trying to return to acceptable levels: who can deny him an evening of transgressive fun?

Nobody.

So Stiles, as the music grows in intensity until it's thrumming in his ears, finally kisses Jeremy back, putting a hand on the boy's face. It's too smooth, like a girl, and Stiles would prefer more stubble, to be honest. 

They both lay down on the couch, lips touching every centimeter of each other skin, with a silent war made of touches, caresses, clenched fists and passion: their bodies are slowly moving in unison, as if they are dancing to the music. For a moment Stiles feels alive, permeated by the new sensations he craves, with eyes closed not to waste anything of that moment.

Stiles forgets the name of the boy, for the simple reason that his imagination is tricking him. Stiles wants another boy, beside him, someone who suffered too, who met the wrong people, and wasn't that much aware that Stiles has always been there for him.

Stiles saved him from the Kanima, comfort him at Boyd's death and awakened him when he passed out at least a couple of times.

"Stiles ..." Jeremy groans.

Stiles opens his eyes, surprised by that voice sweeter and less aggressive than he expects, with his hand over the crotch of a guy who isn't the one Stiles wants.  
While the usual black hole of melancholy takes shape on his heart, the boy hugs Jeremy, smelling his perfume, so orderly, so ordinary.  
Not what Stiles is looking for, not what Stiles wants, because Jeremy isn't Derek Hale.

Stiles was attracted to Derek, and despite Hale's werewolf senses, the human was being able to hide it for a whole year, after the darkness has surrounded his heart. He thought he hated that damn werewolf who had ruined his life, Scott's and too many people's. He hated that Alpha who had flirted with a murderess druid, without knowing that the Sheriff, Melissa Mc Call and Chris Argent were in danger of becoming sacrifices.

Stiles hated that guy, the stupid Derek Hale, wanting to appreciate his sister more, maybe falling in love with her instead. But he couldn't, because he had become sensitive to Derek's moods, he was concerned when Derek was all right and if he was all right.

Stiles has always been good at hiding it to himself, but the situation reached an insurmountable point.

A punch ends straight on Jeremy's chest, intoxicated by the unexpected situation.

"Stiles, what's wrong?" pants the other, strikes by that violent gesture.

"Nothing, it's all right, it's fucking good," Stiles begins to rub himself against the guy, who is getting more and more excited, while Stiles does nothing but venting his frustration on the other that isn't Derek.  
Who has Derek's eyes.  
Who is sucking Stiles' tongue, almost consumating it.  
His heart continues to pound, but those intense moments of passion fails to mitigate the feeling of tightness in Stiles' chest, that become permanent. The black hole in his heart is now a chasm, and the groans of Jeremy doesn't help, because Jeremy isn't Derek Hale.

 

**********

 

A magic atmosphere makes the scene in Beacon Hills' forest in the middle of the night, when the thick darkness blends with a cold but creepy mist, sorrounding the place.  
In that moment the true harmony of nature manifests itself beautifully and impressively, while flashes of the moon rays shine through thousand of branches, and the trees stand together like a monumental group of soldiers, or better an invincible army.  
The fresh breeze allowing the lungs to absorb oxygen that purifies the soul, the croaking of frogs, and the chirping of cicadas mixed with flowing streams and the soothing sound made by leaves moving on the ground, put together a set of complementary and melodic harmonies, so relaxing and different from the adrenalinic feeling of being somehow permanently spied, that creates a sense of perception of the supernatural. 

Because there aren't only pleasant rumors in a forest.  
The goosebumps giving by the disturbing howls, are real. The same noises that people in California hasn't listened to, for almost 60 years.

The charming calm of the night is suddenly interrupted by two figures moving fast and sinuous, passing in the blink of an eye from one branch to the ground, as if they are dancing; it's interesting to watch them, at a safe distance.  
The two shadows slow down, looking able to dodge with brilliance weapons or invisible traps: one of them is taller and far more muscular and agile, thanks to his Alpha status. The young woman next to him, similar somehow to the boy perhaps in the way she runs, making safe to say that they are related, looks slimmer but apparenlty almost as strong as the other. 

It seems like the two guys are followed.

The ultrasound previously scattered around the forest looks to be more and more rare, meaning that Derek Hale hasfinally learned to avoid them, make sure to cover his tracks and basically succeding in what the undergoing training consists.  
The boy lands to the ground, his feet probing gently and carefully the leaves with droplets of sweat falling slowly from his forehead, similar to the ticking of the rain. The underwood feels like a velvety blanket, to his bare feet.  
That was a stupid habit of Kali, now that he thinks about it. He doesn't know why he takes the vices of a werewolf who once perforated his chest with a metal stick; perhaps he tends to be a bit masochist, sometimes.

Behind him, the girl stops abruptly, causing him to distract himself by moving a millimeter ahead, before falling to the ground.  
Never let your guard down, in a forest.

A crystalline laughter is followed by the sound of a rope, and Derek finds himself hanging upside down with fury in his veins, with his bushy eyebrows furrow menacingly.

"Oh my God, seriously Derek? You're really that vulnerable?"

Cora Hale, slender body, long silky and mahogany hair, and most of all sharp fangs, mocks his brother while jumping from tree to tree, avoiding the anti wolf - ultrasound that his brother has brilliantly understated.  
She stops that sort of vain movement, landing just in front of Derek, with a kidding grin on her face.  
"I wondered how a wolf with your strenght could have lost the Alpha status for some time, then the answer came to my mind pretty easily, just by watching you now: how did you manage to crash right into the trap when we have done nothing but avoid them for two hours? Sometimes you look like a simple stupid Beta. "

Cora smiles with crossed arms, knowing that the joke makes his brother really angry, while a cold breeze begins to cross the forest from side to side.

"I want to remind you ungrateful, that my status as Alpha had been exchanged with the protection of your life, so it's better for you to shut your mouth!" Derek growls, scratching the rope that is keeping him hung like a sausage.

"Derek come on, I'm just kidding! Stop taking everything seriously."

Derek snarls. He hates being teased. That's just training, but Derek has been through hell to feel indifferent even to a simple joke; the amount of disappointments he faced in that last period still haunts him, even if trouble seemes to be over.  
Derek frees himself easily from the trap, and he doesn't touch Cora with a claw only because the girl in front of him is one of the people he care about the most.

Someone moves from behind the nearest tree: it's a lively and slender figure, that holds something in his right hand.  
Cora laughs at seeing him.

"No, Derek, this isn't good" Chris Argent shines the flashlight in his hand, going to project the beam of light straight into Derek's dissatisfied face. Chris is also equipped with a laser gun, and has willingly put himself at the disposal of the Hales to help them work out, so if they were facing hunters they would know what to do.

And this was absurd, given that Argent has a long tradition of hunting werewolves.

Actually Chris' sister Kate, is the one who burnt alive the Hales in a fire seven years before. Derek didn't understand what had changed, but now the two families are somehow allies .  
Perhaps because Cora got along well with Allison, Chris' only daughter, or maybe because they redeemed themselves from what they committed.  
Derek would rather be hanging to the tree again, rather than admit that the protection and assistance of Argent made him feel safer.

"A wolf like you would have avoided the trap with his eyes closed, you know, right? You're one of the strongest of the pack, you can't indulge yourself to hang like that, what's more in training" Chris lookes almost like a parent gazing with patience and his cold eyes, Derek's green ones, who feels humiliated once again.  
At that moment, Derek would have devoured Chris by rage. He is an Alpha, he can't be cheated in this way.  
It's only his fault, he must never let down his guard, as his past taught him too hard.

A man in a uniform comes up smiling at Chris, with a camping torch in his hand. Stiles' smile with a few more wrinkles materializes between the wolves.

"You just need more speed. My son is right when he says you look like a sloth," says sheriff John Stilinski, who proposed to help in this exercise.  
He had a free evening and deputy Parrish was dealing with the cases anyway.

In addition, there was no one to keep him company at home.

The sheriff has been kind and especially sensitive, with the Hales, although all the drama in which his son sunk, started by an actual Hale's bite to Scott McCall, the boy Stiles considered almost like a brother.

The sheriff has then realized that Derek is completely different from Peter: if the first one had been psychologically torn by the ruthless behavior of the people around him, the second was one of the leaders in Derek's tragedy

"What did Stiles say?" Derek snaps with rage, staring at the sheriff with a grim expression, while beside him his sister laughs.

"You look like a sloth and for once I think he's right. Derek, from what I heard you were such a respectable wolf"  
says John, while Cora adds "And clumsy. "

"Cora!" Derek can't actually threaten the eldest, so he stares at his sister instead, with fiery red eyes. 

Someone would ask why were they still in Beacon Hills: the only reason was that they didn't care to follow Peter, their psychopathic uncle, to create his pack aroud the whole America.  
They just wants some deserved peace in their city, though it is possible to bring together in the same sentence "Beacon Hills and peace".

Deucalion, the demon wolf that has been a threat for the past year, has been murdered by Derek in an epic battle that pointed out the essence of all those in contact with the supernatural: Lydia, Cora, Isaac, Scott, the twins, Kira, have become all more powerful.  
Derek and the twins have resumed their status as Alphas, and Cora and Isaac, though still Betas, strengthened significantly. In the end of the battle, Derek has been proclaimed leader of his pack by right of seniority, although he wasn't the only Alpha in the group.

"A pack leader who fails a test is so sad to see"  
Cora chimes with disregard, seeming to enjoy Derek's misfortunes. She leanes quietly against a tree, recharging her batteries and staring with wooden eyes the upcoming outburst of his brother.

"You know, Cora, it seems like I'm hearing Stiles; some time ago he was never shutting up, and I remember how he kept insulting Derek and his temper throughout the home" says John, melancholyc.

He knows that Stiles changed, and only a miracle can bring back the old Stilinski who can't keep quiet.  
John missed the curious child he had known for 18 years, who sneaked down the private yearbooks of the school and entered stealthily into police stations. The fading draft of Stiles, however had come into his life, and was walking around the house without phlegm.  
He wanted to tear that damn draft of his son and throw it in the trash, but he hadn't idea of how to bring the old Stiles back.  
If only his wife Claudia has still been with him ...

Derek snorts, rolling his eyes and finally removing the rope away, realizing that the few speeches Stiles did, with his father and friends, were focused on him.  
Not that Stiles complimented him, giving that he considered Derek a sloth, a sourwolf and who knows how many other nicknames idiots has pinned.  
But he apparenlty can't stop talking about him, and this is very strange, given that apart from a few occasions where they saved each other's lives, the two hate each other.

Well not 'hate', they tolerate each other's presence.

Ok, they are allies, both friends of Scott, but nothing more; however all this interest from the young Stilinski, doesn't bother Derek, who feels somehow... considered?

"Did you hear what happened in Mexico? They talked about it on TV today. All those strange disappearances" Chris asks, changing the subject, as Cora checks the phone, waiting for Stiles'messages, because he is the boy whom she chats more with: the boy hardly begins to talk on those days.

"Yes, and what I heard doesn't reassure me at all, honestly" 

"Do you think, maybe someone you know is involved? Perhaps your uncle Peter?"  
John asks with sincere curiosity, because by now has become accustomed to talking about monsters and werewolves.

"No, my uncle is a man of honour, strange but true. After the chaos with the Kitsune that's currently sleeping peacefully in Scott's room, and after Deucalion died, he had no longer harmed anyone. Not us at least"  
Derek crosses his arms, the typical posture he assumes when he is worried.

"And Scott, from the height of his True Alpha power, is keeping everyone calm, especially the Kitsune" Cora nods, proud to be part of Scott and his brother's pack more than ever.

"I don't know exactly what's going on over there, but I am not calm. However none of us has to go to Mexico, so we shouldn't worry too much. You all better continue to train"  
Chris fumbles with a bow and an arrow, pointing them against Derek.

"You won't trick me again"  
The Alpha smirked and before anyone knew it, he was already going to the edge of the forest, away from the other running at the speed of sound.

"When my brother wants to run he turns into Barry Allen, and he just flashes away. It's ridicuolus" Cora says, deciding to lie back blissfully on the leaves carpet, leaving Derek to be the only one who struggles to train perfectly.

"What about you, Miss Hale, how come you're so lazy?"  
John smiles and sits down next to Cora, while she begins to feel the coolness of the forest soil.

"I've done my duty, running non stop for three hours, I didn't hit a trap, so I was a good wolf" she says, sending an amused glance to John.  
The man gets the feeling that this girl can become his daughter in law in the near future, since she and Stiles are constantly together.

"Listen, Cora, I want to be frank with you. I see that you and my son are attached to the hips-" he begins, not knowing how to start that kind of private speech that aren't his forte. Once again he feels the absence of his wife, and it hurts.  
Cora, however, easily understands what he means, rolling her eyes.

"Frank? Wasn't your name John? By the way there's nothing between me and Stiles, don't worry. Your son will have a typical girl at his side, who will suffer once a month because of the moon, not twice, and believe me, it's better for everyone. I mean, Stiles and I talk a lot, but just through messages nowadays, and we are in the same group of mindless troublemaker" Cora's word are followed by an hint of sadness, even if her tone is cheerful.

The sheriff chuckles, placing a protective hand on the girl's shoulder. Both Hales are strong physically and personally, and the sheriff is nevertheless pleased that his son is friend with them, even if their life is far from peaceful.

"Okay, I trust you."

Cora smiles, sensing as, in the distance, his brother faces more carefully the test.

A short bark that transformes into a fierce howl, vibrates strongly through the forest.

***************

The lesson for the next day is all memorized in his head, while the science textbook takes its neat place on the shelves full of items, that have little or nothing to do with science: there are puppets of various sizes of Japanese foxes, otherwise called Kitsune.  
The backpack is done, as well as the clothes, perfectly pressed and placed on the swivel chair near the desk.  
The prospect of an entertaining but peaceful evening takes possession of him, while the water pours loud in the shower.

He never leaves incomplete homework, and lessons that need to be studied at the last minute and in a hurry, anymore.  
The training in the woods, which consisted of a simple run and abdominal, both dealt with the music playing in his ears and by wearing comfortable bodysuit, is over by half an hour and as usual has paid off, because in that month he gained 3 pounds of muscle mass.

Scott McCall just needed to be with his favorite women: his mother would have returned at any moments from the hospital where she worked, and on the kitchen table would have been a delicious meal: a plate of sushi and fried potatoes, and coconut cream for dessert.  
The sushi was cooked expertly by Kira in the best Japanese tradition - with the girl who at that moment was taking a shower - and the side dish masterfully cooked by Scott himself, while the coconut cream was the exception, since they bought it at the bar in front of the house.

Scott thinks back to the year before, and how he completely changed.

The bite at first, that turned him into a werewolf, and the darkness in his heart after - the sacrifice that Deaton, the veterinarian druid forced him to make - revolutionized his life, like meeting Kira Yukimura, the Japanese Kitsune that only he was able to control.  
His old girlfriend Allison is now only his favorite hunter, and a trusted and loyal friend.  
There aren't photos on his desk where he hugs a cheerful girl, with an engaging and conqueror smile, and long wavy hair anymore.  
The photo that shows him getting cozy with Allison has been replaced by an image depicting the entire group, intent on playing with snowballs. Kira and Allison are side by side, covered with colorful scarves and caps, and Scott is among them, almost like an handover.

His room still remains full of posters of his favourite band, but the big deal consists in the photo of a slant-eyed, quite elusive girl, who has taken a big place in his life.

As for Allison, she fell in love with one of Scott's best friends, Isaac Lahey. It was hard, at first, to bear the fact that Allison replaced him so quickly, almost to make him doubt the intensity of their relationship.  
Scott thought Allison was his anchor for a long time, because she was a safe and strong girl, incredibly romantic.  
All water under the bridge now.  
Also because Kira's sexy silhouette that shines through the curtains in the bathroom is a pretty sight.  
Petite in stature; long dark hair; lively, cheerful and authoritarian at the same time. That is Kira in a few words.  
The girl puts Scott's life completely upside down, although it isn't easy to keep her at bay, giving that when the girl turns into a foxfire it's much worse than a werewolf, and she is somentimes hold in a titanium case tightly closed.  
Scott however doesn't care, because what he feels for the girl overcomes the fear of their own transformations.

He looks at the mirror: ebony hair, proud look, jaw slightly accentuated to one side and a sincere smile that lights up his face. Here was the true Alpha, enjoying an evening full of sushi and sweetness.

"Scott, where is the hair dryer?" says a kind and seductive voice, and a girl peeps into the room after coming out of the bathroom, still wearing a white bathrobe and with wet hair, leaving behind a light trail of lavender scent, with the steam of the bathroom that slightly condensed on the windows. She looks like an angel.

When she doesn't turn into a killer fox, Kira is amiable but not inclined on showing what's going on through her head. Scott has worked hard to gain her trust, receiving unconditionally love and friendship in exchange. Basically his effort paid off in the best way.  
The boy smiles, as Kira looks like a drowned chicken, easy to make fun of.

"I'm not telling you" Scott approaches her in a blink of an eye, putting his arm around her back and giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek. The girl's skin is so soft and warm, with the body still heating for the hot water.  
Kira feels a slight chill when the cold skin of the werewolf touches her.  
"I will drip water all over house, can't wait for Melissa to see that it's all wet," she whisperes charmingly.

"I am going to clean, don't worry, and by the way my mother will be happy to see that everything is ready on the table, she loves sushi, that's the only thing she'll notice" he chuckles.

"And I love you when you're so proactive. Oh damn, Stiles would have hated to death this answer only some time ago" she envelops him in a warm embrace, suddenly sad for remembering their friend's condition.

"I know, but he can't hear us, we can be sugary what we want ..." he grins, throwing without grace the girl on his bed, lying on top of her like a duvet and leaning on one elbow, watching her as if she is the best thing that happened in his whole life.

Her dark hair falls wet and wavy on her face and the skin, as a result of the bubblebath, is damn silky. Kira has thin lips, and a well defined nose. The smile she showes then, is extraordinary.

It's true. After Allison - because first love it's impossible to forget - Kira is what Scott needs to live.

Scott mirrors his eyes in the girl's ones, black as the night, before getting even closer to her face, giving her a simple kiss, touching those heart shaped lips, which he loves. Scott removes her bathrobe, looking and touching her naked body that she doesn't hesitate to show him.  
Kira is in ecstasy: Scott's cold fingertips gives her chills and pleasure at the same time, allowing the kiss to intensify, with the guy's tongue slowly rubbing against Kira's.  
For a moment only the gasps and the racing pulses of the two lovebirds aere audible in the room .

"You're beautiful, Kira, really. I had incredible luck to meet you" Scott whisperes, his pupils blown, breaking away slightly from her and taking her hand, feeling that their close contact begins to produce more bestial than human effects on his lower abdomen.

"Not when I'm a psychopathic fox," she says, a bit disheartened by her condition as a shapeshifter.

"I hanged out with psychopaths long enough to say that you are my absolute favorite" Scott jokes joining their lips again.

"Thanks Scott, thank you for everything ..." she smiles, still incredulous to live in the same roof of her boyfriend, after being refused by her parents. As a "monster", like they insulted her, she couldn't live with the most respectable people of Japan, even though his father was a history teacher in her school for some time.

The loving quiet is interrupted by the slam of a car door and the rattle of a few keys.

"I'm home!" Melissa McCall, more and more exhausted, drags herself to the kitchen, knowing that dinner still needs to be prepared.  
"What the hell!" she shouts in surprise when she sees that everything is ready.  
Melissa runs upstairs with enthusiasm, shouting:"I can't believe it, Scott, you cooked sushi? Let me hug you, today I didn't feel like cooking, at all, it was such a dreadful day and..." she enters, way too much shocked about Kira and Scott's too much affectionated attitudes.

"Mom," he shouts, realizing the embarassing situation he has, and standing up abruptly, while Kira adjustes her robe and runs into the bathroom embarrassed, but not before mumbling "Good evening, Melissa."

"Oh, uh, guys, sorry! I go to fill the water jug. I just wanted to say that you know dinner it's ready, but you already know that, and it looks really delicious!"she mutters with her dark curls in the wind by leaving the room in a hurry, feeling just as awkward as his son.

"Your mother took it well, she could have shouted us 'put on your clothes' or anything like that"  
Kira returns to Scott's room to dress, still embarassed.

"It's my mother. She wants to see me happy, and she doesn't put on a show if I'm hugging my girlfriend. "

"We were not only hugging, Scott," she suggests, not regretting the situation a little, though.

A few minutes later, Scott comes down the stairs, holding hands with Kira, both embarrassed but pleased at the same time.The girl still has wet hair and wears one of Scott's lacrosse hoodies as she is starving and has no desire to get fullydressed. Melissa notices it, smiling.  
Scott sits down at the table, ready to eat sushi and to be forgiven by his mother for disturbing his privacy.  
It's certain that after the dinner, the three of them would have watched a movie on the couch, with Scott embracing the most important women in his life.

He would spend a sweet night as an Alpha loved and in love, and after all he's been through, he knows he deserves it.

*************************

Everything is silent and peaceful in that area of Beacon Hills, where the roads intertwines like snakes in the desert, so much that the possibility of hearing even the little movement of a single fly isn't remote.  
It seems the place is close to reach Nirvana, until the roaring engine of a solitary darting motorbike tears up the stillness of the night in an instant.  
The dark blue, almost black, of the motorcycle blends into the surrounding darkess, with two unrecognizable people riding like it's the time of their life; one of them perfectly mastering wheelies and drifts, wearing a comforting suit and a helmet, while the girl's dress wanders behind the other person from a side to another, and her usual high heels bumps against the side of the bike, holding on it.

Without any doubt, they own the night.

"Why are they riding like it's the last lap in a race? Aren't they tired of this constant showing off?"  
Allison Argent snorts - safely locked in a Ford moving at an average speed - with the first signs of annoyance, showed by the multiple wrinkles on her forehead.  
Her boyfriend Isaac Lahey, who drives the car, tries in vain to keep up with the bike that leaves them behind.

"Apparently they aren't. Aiden thinks he's some sort of a pro racer, and Lydia isn't the essence of humility anyway. They'll stop this show when we get to the bowling alley, because it's just a recreation of an Hollywood-y spectacular arriving. You know, the one where they take off their helmets, while shaking their hair in slow-mo" he chuckles.

"Hollywood-y? Probably. Well, I'm not going to feed their egos. I have a plan".  
Isaac's blue eyes lights up with curiosity, as he turns his head briefly to the girl. "Tell me" 

Allison's smile is full of malice: "I'll just wait in the car, pretending indifference. Lydia loathes when someone isn't paying attention to her. She'll know that all of that is ridiculous and she'll stop immediately".

"This is a great idea" Isaac says, staring at his girlfriend. She is so different from the first time he has seen her. Her feauture changed and she mastered more her strength as a hunter, turning into a proud young woman.  
Her previously long hair now are touching just above the shoulders, without any waves or fluid movements. Just straight, neat and perfect.

"Thank you, but you know that mother nature gave me a brilliant mind," she brags, squeezing Isaac's hand and meanwhile readjusting her makeup by looking in the rearview mirror in an ironic imitation of Lydia's haughty manners.

Isaac laughs heartily, the suond similar somehow to a bark. He is a sweet boy, with a definetly athletic physique, thanks to Lacrosse trainings and lycanthropy, and a cute smile. He is also a bit higher than Allison, with curly hair that always turns out to be a mess.

The bowling alley distances a few meters away from Allison and Isaac's perfectly parked Ford; the front row of a show in slomo that they aren't waiting for.  
Lydia and Aiden are so full of themself sometimes...

However, Allison knows, as she and Isaac watch them doing the same moves they predicted, thinking about the ridiculosity of the situation, that Lydia's behaviour is just a mask. She's not arrogant, uncaring or insipid, but wise, intuitive, brilliant and a banshee instead, status that provided her a couple of problems, like the risk of being choked to death by a mad druid, just the year before.  
Now though, Lydia learnt to face her demons, coming out much stronger than her fears.

"What are you doing? You are ruining our coming to the scene" Lydia snaps, when Allison and Isaac gets out of the car, smiling like two kids.

"Please, what scene! First, this place doesn't remind me of Broadway at all, and by the way Isaac and I are tired of this show you want to put everytime you go somewhere" Allison smiles.

"Of course, the supercouple that can read people's minds, my bad I forgot" Aiden says, as he removes the suit. He wears a bluish shirt, which gives prominence to his amber skin tone, and especially flaunts the boy's well defined muscles.

"We can't do that!" Isaac objects, but Lydia ends the discussion in a hurry, entering in the room like a real VIP. "Yeah, all right, enough chatter. Let's go!"

All eyes are on her, Lydia Martin: hair soft and flaming, full lips, a salmon - pink short dress and twelve centimeters of red heels. Not that Aiden was different: muscular, with dark and short hair filled with gel and a touch of mystique aura that completely won the red.

"Well, the rule for tonight is to enjoy myself and to be the pompous prima donna" Lydia decrees, as she approaches the cashier to get the shoes to wear on the runway.

"Was it a threat?" Isaac giggles, finding the behavior of the girl extremely nonsensical. He gazes at Allison, so different in her cobalt blue dress, long up to the knees, a bit of mascara and a slight smile.

"No, it was a observation."

"Enough, let's sit down and begin to play!" Aiden snaps, impatient by nature.  
The boy conquered Lydia instantly, because after her painful break with Jackson she found someone who at least appreciated.  
She didn't love him, of course. She just liked him. Perhaps, in a short time, she would finally be convinced to really love the werewolf.

The boys sit on the white and green hard chairs, after changing their shoes and ordering ketchup and fries in industrial quantities, that Aiden and Isaac eat without ceremony, under the amused glances of their girls.  
Soon the room is filled with a heavy smell of fried food.

Isaac starts to feel a little uncomfortable: the flashing lights around them, added to the neon lights above them, annoys his superhyped werewolf view; Aiden also suffers in silence beside Lydia, because he isn't able to show his weaknesses. Unlike his brother he is much more prone to hide his emotions.  
A frown crosses the boy's face, but Lydia doesn't notice.

Just Allison realizes that something is wrong with her boyfriend.

"Isaac? Is everything ok?" she asks worried while munching chips, lost in a conversation about Kant's categorical imperative, started by Lydia herself, mirroring her brown eyes into the crystalline ones of the boy.

"I don't know, it's just that I can't play bowling. Plus I'm sure that all these moving lights can't make me feel comfortable" Isaac confesses, eyes looking down and with his smile that suddenly vanished from his face.

"Well, I can help you, I'm pretty good," she stands up, putting herself next to Isaac, stroking his curly hair to calm him.  
Allison knows that the same scene has already happened with another boy some time before, but this isn't the time to think about it, because that story is already archived for a while, and then he is already with someone else, Kira specifically.

Isaac stands up to grab one of these spheres, as Allison tries to reassure him by standing beside him.  
Allison picks up his ball, hand in hand with Isaac.

He is the boy she loves, now.

"You have to look straight ahead of you. The pins are the only objective, you have to hit them with all the strength you have, you know? There are no lights, no sounds, nothing around you. You have to concentrate, it's not difficult for someone like you: the pins are your opponents, right? Knock them out.. "

"Only the pins?" Isaac turnes slightly, brushing Allison's lips intentionally, his heart beating a little stronger and his pupils that are blowing. The boy can feel her no longer regular breath, on his neck.

"Yes," she whisperes, holding the bowling ball harder and harder.

Her heart is beating at an impossible rate, and this only happenes with Isaac. Every time she crosses his eyes, even though they have been together all day.

Isaac is her light. She doesn't know how to face difficulties without that adorable wolf.  
Most nights she doesn't sleep because of nightmares and anxiety attacks that takes and catapulting her into horrible and frightening sensations, that the girl never feels.

The sacrifice she, Scott and Stiles faced, was easy to handle at first, but then the horrible feeling that nothing was going in the right direction hasn't left them anymore.  
Allison dreamed about her mother who committed suicide because of the bite she couldn't stand; she dreamed about Aunt Kate - who died long ago - trying to kill Isaac; she dreamed that his grandfather was shooting his father...

"Als?" Isaac looks at her gently, understanding her discomfort. It's a blessing for him, to live by the Argents, because he feels somehow more protected.  
And anyway Kira stays by Scott - who invited him after Derek kicked him out from their loft - and he didn't want to disturb them.

"Will you strike, or wait for the next full moon?" Lydia shouts sarcastically, from the chairs.

Isaac shakes the hand of the hunter, ready to throw the ball. 

3 ...

2…

1 ...

The ball rolls vigorously and quickly, before crashing and demolishing all the pins.

Strike.

"Oh my god, yes!" the couple hugs happy. Allison lets out a little dance, and Isaac laughs heartily. The brunette turns to Lydia defiantly: "Let's see if the banshee and the wolf beat us," she says, exchanging a quick and tender kiss with Isaac.

"Oh, but it's obvious," Lydia stands up, giving up the chips and taking her bowling ball between her hand.

The concentration is palpable around them, because Lydia never does something unturned or wrong. She is a champion in bowling, as well as in skating, in archery and other fifty different sports.

Here she bends to give force to the ball.  
Two feet running gracefully ...  
The ball crosses the lane ....

Strike.

"See, lovebirds?" She smiles, proud, sitting back down.

"Now it's up to Aiden, which I'm sure is going to make it to another stricke," Lydia spreads out, giving a kiss to Aiden, who still has his mouth thick with chips.

The boy fails miserably three pins, making the most competitive girl of Beacon Hills to lose, under the entertained gaze of Allison and Isaac.

"Aiden, you told me you were a phenomenon in bowling. You'll pay for this!" Lydia blurts, with the flames of the challenge in the eye.

The girl takes three strikes in a row, but the understanding and trust of Allison and Isaac definitely prevails.

"So who's the greatest in bowling?" Allison flaunts while Isaac hugs her. 

It is a small achievement for her, winning a simple bowling game, but for those who suffer, even small achievements may seem large enterprises.

The girl doesn't stop smiling throughout the evening, that ended with a cup of chocolate ice cream bought in the bowling bar and a kiss against the Argent's flat after a deserved laughed about Lydia and Aiden.

Finally, Allison thinks after a few hours curled up in her bed, tired but satisfied, after too long, serenity has taken hold again in her life.


	2. Playing the game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am with the second chapter! Hope you guys will like it! Every comment is accepted, so if you guys like the story, or  
> want to know more about it, tell me!  
> The actual story will finally take off in the next chapter... stay tuned! =)

Here I am with the second chapter! Hope you guys will like it! Every comment is accepted, so if you guys like the story, or want to know more about it, tell me!   
The actual story will finally take off in the next chapter... stay tuned! =) 

 

The microwave alarm goes off, a clear sign that milk is ready; with a simple gesture, Stiles takes the mug and fills it with small colored cereal rings, observing them floating on the surface.   
A cup of already drank espresso stands abandoned in front of the mug: the smell of caffeine that intoxicates the room, light gently by the morning sun, gives the idea of the hurry welcomed in the house.   
The refrigerator is already well stocked with healthy and delicious food, while the kitchen lookes miraculosly immaculate. John is tying his tie in front of the mirror in his room, completing successfully his duties as "househusband," by going to the market very early that morning.

Stiles brings, without motive, a spoon full of mushy cereals in his mouth, with his head resting comfortably on his bent arm. The cereals fall on his pajamas, and he watches the dark spots expanding around the honey rings, with a deep sigh.

He closes his eyes, once again sick of everything.  
It's seven-thirty in the morning and John stops at the kitchen's door to stare at Stiles with some insistence and sadness. His son looks like someone who wants to be late to school.

To be honest, Stiles can't find valid reasons supporting the idea of attending that living torture: Friends? He sees them every day at Scott's, or Allison's, or better they meet in Lydia's gigantic villa, planning to foil the next monster attacks or any new Alpha Pack, without Stiles suggesting specific strategies. The time when he actually cares about safety is long gone. On the positive side at least, he is with someone during the day. 

Learning? Who cares. Stiles grades has dropped dramatically, worse than Scott's ones in freshman year, and that speaks volumes.   
Learning dates, studying languages, calculating: he doesn't enjoy it anymore. He would rather be a couch potato and lie on the sofa waiting for death to take him.   
Stiles: the most hyperactive person probably in the whole California, wants to spend his days sleeping in a warm bed, without having to worry about anything, basically living off his dad.

John, ready to go to work, can't help but notice Stiles' usual blank look, and he decides to sit for a moment to talk with him, seeming strangely intimidated.

"Son, listen, I'm needed at the police station for obvious reasons, since I'm the Sheriff - he tries to joke, but Stiles doesn't pretend to listen, so he goes on -I was thinking maybe I could order pizza for dinner, hm?"

Stiles sits still, as he swallowes some cereals, provoking John's anger by the minute. He prefers to go straight to the point, changing his tone from mellifluous to authoritarian.

"Ok Finstock called me again yesterday. He keeps saying that there isn't an alphabet letter that could define your grades anymore, mabye just T, as Troll. What about studying with Lydia and the rest of your friends this afternoon? Come on Stiles this is your senior year, and you will need to consider for real your life in college! You're aware that I can't mantain you in this house forever?"

The tone of his voice rise slightly, but talking to a wall might have been more rewarding.

"See you tonight," John snaps, giving up, while eyeing his son and noticing that unbearable blankly stare that has been a part of him for a while now.   
The man walks away, with a preoccupied look that accentuates too many anxiety wrinkles on his face.

"Bye Dad" Stiles mumbles, his mouth stuffed with cereals. Without even finishing breakfast, the boy goes to the bathroom first, then in his room, fills the backpack with the first books placed on the desk, without distressing about the subjects he had that day and opens the closet, finding his usual clothes waiting.   
Stiles takes the first pair of jeans his hands lay on, adds quickly a sweatshirt and gets out.   
He can't skip classes. The professors would report everything to his father, and Stiles doesn't want to add more trouble to the one he is already facing.

He can still ignore the learning aspect, the important is just stay in class. Warming the chair is a wonderful idea and if the teacher thinks to ask him a question, he isn't obliged to answer.

The boy wears a black jacket and leaves the house, his face softly lashed by the typical morning breeze, as cool and pleasant as the kiss that happened the night before, with that boy... Jimmie, Jamie, was that Jeremy? Yes, Jeremy.

His eyes were two emeralds.

He dreamed about them that night, and he woke up trembling. The emeralds were hidden in a black whirlwind from which it appeared a snake that wanted to bite him.   
Scott and Lydia were with him, but they laughed at him, made fun of him, encouraged the snake to hit him, to harm him as much as possible, because Stiles wasn't special, he had no powers.   
Just the stupid Stiles, of whom no one among the whole supernatural world had understood the purpose yet.

Kira was alongside Scott in his dream, tossing burst of lighting from her palm. Aiden - and Lydia - instead, scratched him sorely with his claws.   
Allison who kept throwing arrows on him was there too, screamed and chanted each sentence with the launch of a dart.

"You have no aim." The arrow hit him on the leg.

"You have no precision." Now up to his chest.

"You're no good, you're useless!" It was the turn of the head.

"You don't hunt, howl, scream, you're plain useless!" The last arrow wounded his heart.

Cora was there, trapped against a tree, but she laughed, and laughed, and howled...

 

Stiles felt sick all night, terrorized that his friends truly considered him a loser.

Dark circles, a proof of the few hours sleeping, are still visible on his face.  
"Good morning Stiles. What about starting the day with the usual sweet dose of pessimism? Good idea" he mutters to himself, while yawning. He climbs into the car, or rather, his sweet Jeep 'Roscoe'.

Only when Stiles turns on the engine he realizes that the passenger seat is already occupied by a girl with strawberry blonde hair and an amused look, that is in fact staring carefully at him.

"What the f- Lydia? What the heck are you doing here? How'd you get in? "Stiles says in shock, back to reality for a moment, placing a hand on his chest.

"Well Stiles, the car was already open, and I thought 'what if I go to school with one of my best friends?' just to make you a bit of company, since Aiden goes with Ethan and nobody can give me a ride, no puns intended" she explaines.   
As soon as she entered into the car, the atmosphere turns more cheerful, more lively.

Stiles would have wanted a moment like that more than anything: being with Lydia, his crush from third grade, going to school together, like lovebirds.   
However it's well known that dreams do not always come true, and the catastrophe lived during that last year, changed all Stiles' perspectives.

The interest he has for the girl - to be honest not without difficulty - completely melted like snow in the sun. Lydia and Stiles's affinity is stable, and Stiles basically found a sister in her.   
His dreams on that girl ended long ago.

"So Stiles, you want to switch on the car or what?" she shakes him after a few seconds. Stiles now lives lost in his thoughts, apparently.

Yeah, sorry" he grumbles.

Stiles starts the car, and the two make their way to that building Lydia adores.

Stiles studies her with attention for a moment: her hair is in a ponytail, with a lilac dress and a big gray bag matched with her heels. She seemes to have only fashionable outfits and probably would run even the marathon in heels.

A heavy silence falls between them. Stiles checks the road outside, with no intention of starting to talk.

Lydia begins to get nervous, drumming frantically her fingers on the window: she hates the interminable silences, especially between friends. Her hand goes straight to the radio button, hoping to cover the unbearable monotony with a little bit of music.   
Stiles frownes, but doesn't complain to the sound that is slowly filling his Jeep.

The landscape marches beside them. Huge villas, abandoned houses and a large forest. Beacon Hills' scenery isn't that great, in general because the town is the simple theater of the supernatural, and definitely that is enough.

The next song doesn't seem particularly nice: considering the fact that Lydia has the urge to ask her friend details of his adventures of the previous night since she entered in the car, she decides to turn off the radio, with Stiles' obvious gratification.

"So, in the fifteen minutes journey from your home to the school, I died and resurrected of boredom four times. Why don't we talk as the good friends we are suppose to be? For example, why don't you tell me what you did last night? Aiden sent me a message this morning saying that Ethan had a sensational news concerning you, don't tell me you lost your status as a virgin? You know you'd be safe in the event of another druid attack? Don't you feel a little relieved? Tell me!" She expresses with sincere curiosity, pulling out her most seductive smile and showing the perfect line of her teeth, the slight dimple on the cheek, praising the cherry red of her lipstick. No boy can resist to that look.

But Stiles seemes irritated.

"Can I ask you a question? Please show me where is located exactly on your model's body the button to shut you up? I need it now" he snaps, now unable to stand uncontrollable chatting anymore.

Him.

It's perhaps one of the new aspects of his life after the sacrifice, he likes seriously. That makes him more similar to the one person he wanted.

Stiles' perennial discontent doesn't impress Lydia.  
"Oh Stiles, stop acting like a woman on her period, always acid and taciturn! Sometimes you remind me of Derek. If you do not want to confess, I'll ask Danny what happened. See, I'm sending him a message" she says, pulling out her inseparable phone from the bag.

Stiles draws up the corners of his mouth. Has he heard correctly? Stiles Stilinski, the useless human, has been compared to a werewolf, his werewolf.   
Maybe he can give Lydia a chance to appease her curiosity.

"You know, maybe I can confess something. Yesterday I met a guy who attends the music class with Danny, and also the Lacrosse team. We sat on a sofa in the gay club, and we kissed. It was exciting, actually. How did your night go? I know you went bowling with Aiden, Isaac and Allison" Stiles spits out, shrugging, parking his car a few hundred meters before the school.

Lydia's face, which has suddenly paralyzed, finger pointing on the phone screen that shows an incomplete message, is not so different from the usual: the gaping mouth and a blank, but amazed and intrigued, look.   
She doesn't make a sound tho, looking like a silent banshee.

"Y-you kissed..." she gasps, overwhelmed with amazement. So finally Stiles acts on his feelings and gives up to his real nature? It's about time.

"Listen, you Goldilocks and I have a deal by now. I told you this secret, but you need to stay quiet with everyone."

"Like the others aren't our friends. I find it so disrespectful to them you have no idea." she says firmly.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that" he whispers, glancing angrily at the girl, before continuing.

"I think, well, I always tried to hide it, but now I'm sure. I'm bisexual - Stiles pauses, just to give some theatrical effect - Now, if you let this slip away, I swear to the mother of the Banshee that I'll make you pay for it..." Stiles is slowly getting nervous, since the increasing amount of fidgeting.

Lydia doesn't flinch, nor to hear the confession, nor listening to the strange threat: instead she says fiercely, "Stiles, are you serious? I don't care if you are bi, gay, or cakesexual. I don't care, you're my brother no matter what you do, and who you make out with. I mean, you should have known tha-... ".

Lydia's eyes widens. She understands, clapping her hands and pointing them to Stiles.

"You have a crush on Derek! Oh God, I could have sworn it. I could have sworn it! Now that everything is clearer, your absurd behavior, always taciturn and irritable. On second thought, the same thing happened to Allison and Scott. That's why they - "she starts, bursting out laughing uncontrollably.

"They what? What happened to those two? They also have a crush on Der- "Stiles freezes, with a hint of blush on his pale cheeks.

This time Lydia shouts seriously: "You confessed! So you like Derek. However no one except you has a crush on him, and even if everyone probably already smell that on you, I assured that I won't reveal to anyone. Actually it makes sense. The day of your sacrifice, talking to Dr. Deaton, we learned that in this period of darkness of your heart, you assume the similar behavior to that of the person who means something to you, like you have to readjust yourself like that. Logically, you became an unbearable sourpuss, and it makes me very anxious ... ".

Stiles sighs quiet, he knows that he can trust the girl. "Okay, thanks for the explanation. Now just shut it, I beg for a second of silence because I can't tolerate all this chatter... ".

Lydia throws yet another hurt glare to his friend.

"Oh, come on, just stop it! I told you you can trust me and, you treat me like this. Screw you Stiles!"

Stiles stops the car just inside the school parking lot. Lydia gets out of the Jeep in an instant, slamming the door violently and without even thank to the ride, fuming.   
She feels so much sadness that shatters her like an unexpected wave. She hates this new Stiles, she misses the too much curious nerd, the one unfailingly entertaining. A whole year passed since the sacrifice, but Stiles' behaviour hasn't changed a bit.

"He's intolerable now, hopefully it won't get worse"she mutters aloud, approaching toward the door of the school at a steady pace. Stiles' next stage can take the form of Peter Hale: psychopathic and ruthless, and that would probably mean trouble.  
Well, that already happened, with the whole Nogitsune mess. 

"What shouldn't get worse?" Someone's arm clenches decidedly around her from behind, making her turn. Aiden leans to kiss her lips, and she doesn't resist, clinging to him like mussel attached to the rock.   
It's a passionate kiss, with the tongues of both dancing. Lydia's chest gets warmer, and the feeling of being loved is something she actually needs. 

"Nothing. I was just thinking about Stiles. Let's go?" She suggests, reluctantly separating her lips from her boyfriend's ones. She takes his arm, walking towards the school like a true diva. She can't let Stiles's behaviour to ruin her day.

Aiden and Ethan's motorbike, with the latter who separates from his twin to kiss Danny, is next to Scott's one. It's a good step forward for the True Alpha, compared to the battered bycicle of some time before.

Scott removes his helmet, repeating some econ definitions in his mind. He knows them perfectly.

Kira is just behind him: with their backpack, they make their way hand in hand towards the door. Allison and Isaac has already arrived, and are chatting amiably, exchanging sweet quick looks. Allison notices the couple, giving them a smile. Isaac, however, calls them.

"Scott, Kira, how was your evening? Yesterday Allison and I just destroyed Lydia and Aiden with bowling. Can you believe it?" Isaac cheers, agitated and excited, to his friend.

Allison is definitely quieter.  
"Calm down Isaac, it was just a game! But yes, we have trashed them, although Lydia aimed for the strike three times, successfully" Allison admits, her cheek pinched in a loving gesture by Isaac that can't help it.   
"Congratulations, it looks like you had fun. We ate very good sushi, actually" Scott says, pointing to his girlfriend, who adds amused:" Yes and Melissa saw us while we were making out, almost naked. I was naked though, and it was so embarassing"

Isaac and Allison's reactions are completely different: he flushes, given the confidentiality of the information, and she gapes in disbelief and amusement.   
"Oh God, poor Melissa. I bet she ran away turning scarlet. I remember once my mother caught me with Scott in my room and..." Allison shuts it immediately, but the damage is done.

A cold tension falls suddenly upon them: Isaac wears an alarmed expression and Kira feels very confused.

Scott and Allison have deeply loved each other, and long before they met their currents significant others, they even thought about their future together.   
Their current partners - although that story was archived and it was transformed into a beautiful friendship - sometimes struggled to forget it.

Scott takes immediately control of the situation by changing the subject abruptly: "Why don't you guys come one of these nights? Kira can cook sushi again. We could organize something with the whole pack. "

"Don't expect Stiles to come" Lydia joins the discussion, still disappointed by the behavior of her friend.   
Like the rest of the group she wanted the old Stiles back. Lydia thought that even Derek perhaps missed a little that nosy guy who had become too quiet.

"Why? "Isaac asks, while the annoying bell starts ringing.  
"He's so detached and reserved now, no longer him. We tried everything to make him change, but nothing happened ..." Lydia sighs, as they crossed the corridor

"He hasn't gone through the critical stage yet, the one we stopped experiencing long time ago" Scott affirms, nodding toward Allison, waiting for confirmation. Both of them missed their close relationship with Stiles more than anyone else.

"You know Scott, I came to the conclusion that Stiles doesn't feel loved. Ok, we appreciate him, but it's not the same as a person who can give him affection, I mean, 'that kind'. You and Allison have overcome that phase, because you were lucky enough to have people who loved you. And that's not happening with him." Lydia reels off brilliantly.

"For real? I never thought about this" Allison admits, sadly.

The pack, lost in their thoughts, arrives in the economy classroom with Finstock already sitting on the chair.   
Stiles's head rests on the desk, his geography book open in front of him.

A look of understanding passes between the pack at the sight of Stiles whose gaze fixed into nothing.

"Have you seen him? Every morning he sat there, without moving and with a blank look. I can't stand him anymore" Lydia says distressed, as she ignores the guy.

"We all know that's not true, in a hour and a half you're probably already puzzling over how to help" Allison retorts, sitting down next to her.

Scott is the only one who moved closer to Stiles.

"Hey man, nice dark circles" Scott tries to provoke him.  
"Hey uneven jaw, at least these bags under my eyes will go away" he replies, without even pay attention to him.

Scott sighs. A provocation is the worst move he can choose. Stiles hasn't used the sharp tongue that much on those days, but the few times he speaks, he provides his usual sarcasm.

"Sorry, come on, I wanted to know if you were ready for the lacrosse game today. It's an important match and the team needs you!"

If the provocations don't work, maybe with incitement...

"Scott I don't want to talk, okay? Have a nice day" Stiles shuts him off .

Neither incitation works: Scott returns to his seat, exhausted.

Ethan and Danny come in hand in hand, sitting in front of Stiles. The class is slowly filling up with voices, while Cora Hale, enters the room in last, sitting next to the Sheriff's son.

"Hey, Stiles, what's up?" She whispers, smiling, while the professor calls the attention of the boys, apparently for an important announcement regarding the Lacrosse team, that Stiles doesn't listen, even though he is part of it.

"Nothing. "He says firmly, without taking his eyes from Ethan's back.

"Great, listen, do you give a minimal look at the books that you stick in the backpack, or do you draw them at random from the bookcase? That's the geography book from middle school, but at least it's not a kitchen or gardening one. Tomorrow you should just be able to bring with you history, economics and English. Maybe I can bake you a cake as a reward..."

"Shut the hell up Cora!" He shouts furiously, and a roar of joy erupts in the classroom.

"I can't bake a cake for everyone guys, sorry!" Cora's snarky remark is unheard, unlike Stiles' cry.

"Bilinski, why are you screaming? I want to see you angry only in the field this afternoon, I want you ready and concentrated, we have to win and get into the finals. Hey, wait a minute: Your grades are below zero, you need a pop quiz!" Finstock decrees.   
The boy stands up and heads to the blackboard, with just utter emptiness in his head, without even correcting Finstock about his name.   
Lydia turns to Cora, explaining why the whole class yells with joy, like pupils in kindergarten: "You didn't hear? If the phenomenal Lacrosse Team behave as such, we can access the American League and go to Mexico City! That's so great"

Cora's eyes widens. "Mexico City? Haven't you heard about the chaos happening? I don't think it's safe going there at all" she whispers worried, but Lydia has already turned around, ignoring her.

The girl sighs, focusing on Stiles' pop quiz, that he fails dramatically.  
After realizing that the boy knows nothing, the professor sends him back to his desk, forgetting economy and returning to the Lacrosse speech, talking with a certain amount of verve and fire in his eyes: "Remember, the game this afternoon, is essential. We win this and we will enter the list of the top 8 Lacrosse teams in the whole American continent, which will play the championship in Mexico City. In addition, I will bring there not only the team, but also the entire class of economics.   
Co Captains McCall and Mahealeani, you have a decisive responsibility, are you able to take it?"

Finstock's words, especially the last part, make all the members of the pack to smile in silence, including Stiles, who bows his lips upward.   
The man has no idea of the responsibility Scott and the others have gone through recently.

******************************************

It's a sunless afternoon, despite the first part of the morning has been bright and warm.   
The crowd sitting on the bleachers is packed like sardines: students concerned for the game, parents who are rooting for their children, friends of the players and the reserves.

Lacrosse is the most important event of the moment, and Beacon Hills' team has been out of the American tournament for too long, plus it's the opportunity of a lifetime for some of them, especially for senior years, and they don't want to miss it.

First lines - Scott, Danny, Isaac, and the twins, plus a couple of players who aren't part of the pack - get on the field ready and definitely psyched up.   
Allison, Lydia, Kira and Cora become almost hoarse from the seats, while inciting the team, their screams being a real tonic for the guys in the field; after the opening whistle they take off, marking opponents.   
Lacrosse is a violent sport, where physical strength and class had to match to create the winning combination: that day the boys continued to score, with precise passes, blocking and excellent technical skills, as demonstrated by Scott's last shot.

The match dashes smoothly, unlike the field, that is losing clumps; everyone except Danny, shows off their skills as werewolves; if only Jackson had been on the team with them...  
Danny, however, isn't not crappy. Indeed, he is definitely the best in the field, among the "humans."

Meanwhile, Finstock appeares agitated and excited: he turnes to the bench, noticing that two players are missing.

"Hey, where's Bilinski? And Smith? I can't lose players every game. Where's Bilinski!?!" Finstock yells at the girls' direction, buth they answer with a shrug.

"Stiles was in the locker room, I'm sure; when I went to Aiden he was there" Lydia affirmes.

"Yes, I know, I saw him too. Hey, what were you doing in the locker room before the match? "Kira asks, amazed.

"You're so prude. What do you think I was doing? Selling ice-creams? "Lydia stares at her for a moment, the glancepainted on her face communicating a clear 'amateur'.

Kira takes the hint and blushes, devoting her full attention to the game.

"Look, I'm going to find Stiles, ok? And I'll carry him here in a hurry, whatever it costs" Cora shouts angrily, jumping up and leaving an empty seat next to Lydia.

"We hope you find him, and mostly that he's not already home" Allison surmises, while Isaac scores dedicating it to her. 

"No, he can't really be this lazy, this lacrosse game is crucial" Kira says while applauding the goal.

"Umpf."  
A dark shadow approaches, sitting next to Lydia, occupying the empty space and making her jump . The girl is in the verge of a scream, frightened.

"Derek? What the heck are you doing here ?! "she snaps, sending him back the grim glances he throws them.

"I came to see the guys playing, is it prohibited? Scott, Isaac Stiles and others are in the field?"

"Not Stiles. Hey, did you come here to see him? " Lydia whispers with mischievous eyes, ready to catch Derek's reactions. In a moment she recalls Stiles' words of that morning.

"What did it pop into your head? I said that I came just to watch them play. They are winning, I see. Where's Cora? "

"Cora? Um, in the bathroom? " Lydia invents, hoping that Derek buys it.   
Lydia forgets a small and silly particularly common feature of all the wolves: Derek can read people's behavior, although strangely he doesn't bother to care now, knowing that Lydia tells him a lie.

Silence falls between the two, as the team continues to score.   
It's strange for Lydia not to knowing what to say.

"Cora is looking for Stiles, right?" Derek asks, with his usual poker face.

"Yes, I did not see him at all during the game, but I'm sure he was here when we arrived. I don't think he's still in the locker room, but why do you care? "She replies very directly.

"I don't" Derek snaps, perhaps too quickly. The boy, without looking into Lydia's eyes, knowing that the girl will definitely read his expression, and of course misinterpret it, continues: "It's just... I don't know. Stiles is still very different, not the curious pain in the ass he used to be some time ago, and you know, Cora is very worried about him ... "

"Cora or you?"

"Cora, why should I be? We are mere allies, on the same side just because we're both friends of Scott"

"But Stiles has saved you a lot of times, and it seems to me that when the Kanima had paralyzed you in the pool, he did not hesitate to help. He was actually comforting me, his crush from the third grade, but instead he just decided to help you for two hours, he kept you alive, even if he hated you, and... "

"Ok, I got it." Derek stops, stunned by that speech. That girl hits the point.

"Why don't you go check on him? You want me to remember who comforted you when Boyd died? Who told you ... "

"I understand, you want to get rid of me, ok, I'm going to look for Stiles, but only for two minutes. Just to see if he's still alive at least"   
Derek stands up annoyed and concerned at the same time, moving away to head to the locker rooms.

"I didn't say that you should stay longer. Come on Aiden!" Lydia says, her eyes on the field to celebrate her boyfrend who just scored.

Derek heads for the locker rooms, without noticing the look of victory that was crystal clear on Lydia, which has nothing to do with the game.

"Thank me, Stiles" she thinks to herself.

..................................

"Stiles?" Cora has left the school field for a good ten minutes, and there is still no sign of the boy. The silence is raging, an indication that no one is in the building.

"Where are you? Stiles? "She calls, without receiving answers.  
"As soon as I find out where he is, I think I will turn him into mush" Cora promises to herself, entering the area of the locker rooms, without knowing that Stiles has never left that place.

She has no idea that Stiles Stilinski tastes the pleasure with Jeremy Smith, his teammate with whom he placidly made out the night before.

Stiles and Jeremy just remained in the locker room, without anyone else noticing, at first whispering dirty words to each other, then going straight to action.   
Jeremy is lying on the bench next to the showers, with Stiles straddling him, devouring him with long kisses.   
Stiles needs to sense something. He urges to enjoy his life again, through his beating heart, throbbing with excitement.  
Now without any doubt that room smells of arousal.

No one bothered to figure out where Stiles actually was, and why he didn't show up to the match.   
No one except Cora, who hears panting in the direction of the showers. She approaches with worry, and finds herself in front of a porn movie set.

Jeremy has his shorts pulled down, Stiles has taken off his shirt. Neither of them realize that there is one person a few centimeters away, so lost in their bubble of pleasure. The two bodies are indivisible, almost attached with glue.   
Both moan softly trying not to be heard, making their apparent pleasure even more sensual.

Two people are observing them now: Derek stops at the entrance of the locker room, completely overwhelmed.

Is Stiles kissing a boy? 

Cora's eyes widen, bewildered. The question of how she's suppose to behave grips her guts: give Stiles a moment of peace or drag him to the field at the risk of a serious fight? She has always felt closer to Stiles, appreciated his sarcasm, now shown more rarely, and has become attached to him so much.

The girl is conscious of having to risk it anyway, for the sake of the team.

"Stilesthecoachwantsyouonthefield" she spits out, before blushing slightly. It's still an intimate moment, and she hates to disturb people in that way.  
Stiles jumps up, wiping his lips and looking around, before staring terrified at the werewolf. Cora notices the bulge in the crotch area of the two boys, realizing that she just interrupted something serious.

Derek's pupils - with the guy hidden behind the door - are bursting. He's stunned, can't believe that boys do that effect to Stiles.

"Look, I don't care what you were doing, but there is a team that needs both of you, and especially the coach wants you in the field, so sort yourself out. At least you can continue this after the game, can't you?"

Jeremy stands up, puts on his shorts and and walks away embarassed without saying a word, picking up his shorts embarrassed, while Stiles wears his jersey with the number 24 without a word and still very dazed.

"I'm sorry I interrupted. I didn't even think you were gay. Not that I care, being gay is perfectly normal" she whispers, sitting on the bench and eager to immediately set the record straight - as much as she could -, given Stiles' well known susceptibility.

"I'm bisexual, "he whispers, staring at her intently, almost as if he is in a trance.

Derek stands still, shocked by how the boy approaches slowly to her sister, as he is watching. His wolf senses pick up on Stiles' feelings, more than his actual words.A void.

"You are wonderful Cora," he mumbles. Cora glances with suspicion, while Stiles runs his thumb on Cora's upper lip, as she places her hand on his cheek.

"Stiles, you don't want to do this, I know it. Remember, wolf senses are flawless. Stop it, there's a game to play" she explains, almost moved by Stiles' desperate search of affection.

"Yes, I know..." Stiles sussurres dreamily, before getting even closer.   
Cora is attractive, her face extremely feminine even if she is more of a tomboy with a light sprinkling of freckles and a hint of resolution that often shines from her brownish eyes.

Derek's honestly unexplicable rage makes him turn. He feels cheated in some deepest part of his soul, without even knowing the reason. He was ready to threaten Stiles, if he dared to get closer to his sister.

Cora usually expects the weirdest things happening to her, but nothing beats Stiles coming closer, touching her face and last but not least, grazing her lips with his own. 

The girl is surprised when he begins to touch her long hair and kisses her hard, almost as if he wants to eat her tongue; Cora's lips are soft, Stiles is amazed. She smells of vanilla, perfume he can't stand.   
Stiles realizes that the attempt of chasing passion desperately doesn't lead to anything, because she is still the wrong Hale.

Derek stands, still with open jaws. Stiles is suffering, he feels it. It's a slight pain, which gradually gets bigger involving him completely . The Alpha inwardly is affected by Stiles's ache, something he personally experienced too many times. 

That's the moment when Derek feels completely empathic with Stiles, even though he's kissing his sister. Derek draws away claws and fangs, experiencing excruciating pain at the pit of his stomach, almost cutting off his breath.  
Stiles has lived with that feeling for too long, and Derek learned to live with it. 

Cora sets apart their contact, without actual responding to the kiss; she startles, knowing that Stiles blank expression means that he feels no emotion at all. His heart isn't beating like crazy, as it should and there's no love, or warm feelings in his gestures.

The girl pulls away, understanding the reason for all that situation. It's just a test to prove to himself that he can still be sensitive.  
It happened with Jeremy, but not with Cora, because she's not that member of the Hale family Stiles wants, but Derer doesn't sense that, as he walkes away, a bit flabbergasted.

Cora sighs, realizing that the guy in front of her needs all the help she can give. Cora embraces Stiles, hugging him tightly.

"Come on Stiles, the game is waiting for you, or at least let the coach to see you, before he yells at the both us for no reason" she prompts, after breaking the hug, going out side by side from the locker rooms.

"Cora listen. I didn't mean to kiss you, I just didn't know what to do or...it's all a big mess. I don't want things to change between us, I like us as friends, and this kiss was inappropriate, and-" Stiles begins to fidget, feeling his salivation increasingly rare.

"Breathe Stiles! Ok, it happened, but don't worry, I'm not mad at you. This is just an affection kiss. It can happen between friends. "   
It's not time to dwell on the situation now; maybe later, at the loft so to clarify the matter once and for all.   
She understands Stiles' pain, Cora wnt through it when she thought her whole family was wiped out in the fire seven years before.   
The relief in finding Derek was incredible.

A roar of joy reaches the boys heading towards the field.   
"We won, we go to Mexico!Isn't it wonderful?" Scott pounces on his best friend, who exchanges a brief look with Cora, hugging Scott back.

It isn't time to be unhappy.

*******************************

"I invited Stiles here, he should come in a few minutes"

Cora Hale, one hand hanging at the bar, and the other occupied by an history book, brushing up the lesson, is intent on performing pushups, dressed only with a top and sweatpants.   
Derek stops his training for a moment, eyes wide and bathing in sweat.

"Stiles? Here? And for what absurd purpose? "He asks upset and irritated.

"We need to talk. You know by now that his behavior is so apathetic and passive is almost unbearable, so I've decided to encourage him. I don't think he wants you to stick around here, since I'm sure that you put him in awe sometimes but you can stay, as long as you put on your earplugs and don't disturb us ... "

Derek is a bit surprised. How could Stiles swoop into his house without warning and improvise a psychological session, with the same person he flirted with?

"Do whatever you want, I won't stay, I don't bother," Derek mutters, back to training after picking up a towel that's hanging nearby, rubbing it on his face to remove some sweat.

"Um, ok. But did you realize that you are too hard on him, Derek? Every time you talk about Stiles there is always so much hate and then, voilà, you can't wait to save each other's lives. It's not normal. Admit that you are preoccupied about him as you as much as Scott, Isaac and me, is not a problem ... "

"I don't care," he repeats, loudly, trying to end the speech. The boy stops and lays down to the ground, ready to perform a set of exercises.

"All right, I'll stop talking about him, then," says Cora, smiling, certain that his brother is not so careless about the Stilinski topic.

Derek seems to stay mute for too long, but then the memory of the events of the past afternoon blow up on his mind.

"He kissed you! I saw you in the locker room!" He almost screames, without adding 'You were not the only one who kissed'.

Cora is dumbfounded for a moment. Derek actually minds the situation. "Yes, yes, we kissed, but it's not what you think"

"I know, he hasn't experienced anything: I was affected by his feelings, I studied them and I found void. So why have you kissed? "

The younger Hale stands still, glancing at his brother's eyes. "Derek, sometimes between friends people kiss as a joke, and even when you greet each other, is a way to express friendship. But he wanted to prove to himself that he can still enjoy life, despite what has happened, but he failed".

"I saw him with that guy" Derek confesses, reluctantly. He wants, for some strange reason, that Stiles would have confided to him, someone that lived with dark in his heart for a long time. The boy, however, preferred making out with strangers and telling his secret to Cora. Yet he and Stiles have known each other a lot.

"Yes, Stiles, well, I shouldn't confess you this but..."

"But?"

"Well, he doesn't love just girls, if that's what you wanted to know. And you wanted to know"

Derek stands stunned for a moment: Stiles is bisexual? This definitely changes the situation. Their relationship in the first place. Their mutual hatred, and too many other things.

The door creakes slightly before Derek can answer.

"Excuse me, I came in, the door was open and - " Stiles steps into the loft with his usual long face. The boy is surprised, however, to see Derek, while doing abs, shirtless, and looking at him with a surprised and softened look.   
Soft? No, Stiles's imagination plays him some terrible game.

Cora turns to Stiles, throwing the book away and smiling, "Stiles, you've come! Well, finally we can talk!"

"Is he here?" He starts to say a little stupidly lost, pointing to Derek.

"No, Derek was leaving, right?" Cora tries to mitigate, turning to his brother worried and realizing that his presence would irritate Stiles. The girl wants to avoid Derek's unpleasant comment, but her brother's impetus takes place.

"Of course I'm here, I live here, you idiot!" Lets out the Alpha, growling at him. He just looks for Stiles' reaction who once used to took seconds just to insult him back. The boy's answer, however, is decidedly different.

Stiles opens his eyes, clenches his fists. Then he takes two steps back, "Well, I remembered that I have to go studying and doing a lot of other things. It's not the right time now to talk. See you Cora."  
After some stuttered words, the boy walkes away, not before he launches a disappointed look in Derek's direction.

Cora waits until the boy is gone, too blown away by his sudden abandonment to call him back, and rails against his brother, throwing him a slap.

Derek stops Cora's hand by throwing the girl away. She goes back into balance, grinding her teeth and showing her claws.

"Was it crucial for the end of our meeting, in which you were not even invited to call him an idiot? Derek, really? Stiles came here to get help and you were only able to scream at him!" she barks furiously.

"He made a stupid question!"

"You could just ignore it! That boy needs help, he's very fragile, and what do you do? You send him away, making him feel worse than before, you and tact live in a really different world, right?   
You're hateful when you do that, it is normal that you're always alone. I'd better stop him and invite him to get something to drink, I have to keep Stiles clear of troublemakers like you ... " Cora snaps, walking away and slamming the door.

Derek throws himself on the floor, sighing.   
He doesn't want to insult Stiles really, just wanted to make him react. Maybe it's not the best way to shake him, wake him from his numbness hateful. Maybe he should have been nicer, polite, like he was with Isaac, Scott, his sister and the rest of the pack. 

"I am the idiot here" he whispers to himself, jumping up and throwing away Cora's book with a kick, in a fit of rage. He has to approach Stiles more calmly instead of hurling at him in a fury.

"What would I do to him now? Cora will hate me if I don't figure this out" Derek reasons, throwing himself on the enormous bed in his room as a dead weight. The answer comes to his mind immediately.

If that boy has become a walking chaos, Derek to make peace with his conscience, has no doubt but help. Only that can calm the horde of guilt that invested him. Stiles would have made the same gesture, with roles reversed and the awareness of that makes the situation worse for the werewolf.

Helping Stiles is the only viable solution.

Yeah, but how?


End file.
